


Elope

by RainbowArches



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Childhood Friends, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-07
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-05 10:08:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5371361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowArches/pseuds/RainbowArches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Melinda and Andrew married each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Elope

_1973_

Their reasoning was this: if they were married, the teacher had to let them sit together. They had to be on the same team in gym. Their parents had to let them play together whenever they wanted. No one else was allowed to raid their lunches and the other kids would magically stop being in love with them.

They got married under the monkey bars (if you were short enough to fit under there then that’s where you got married. If you weren’t married under an arch then you weren’t really married.) When the ceremony was done they hugged- kissing was gross- and Andrew gave her a bouquet of dandelions and clovers.

Turned out that just because they were married, that didn’t mean they could sit together and play together whenever they wanted, which seemed quite unfair. But they stayed married anyway; at least until one of the older kids said that being married meant kissing, and then everyone decided marriage was dumb.

_1983_

Melinda sat on the bleachers and watched the couples slow dance. Well, not _dance._ Hold each other at arm’s length and shuffle their feet. Most people were standing around in groups, looking bored.

Andrew climbed onto the bleachers and sat next to her. “Look what I found,” he said. He handed her a ring. It was an orange band with lilies painted around it. “Ugly, isn’t it? Want it?”

“You should put it in the lost-and-found.” Not that she thought anyone would miss it. It was probably a Cracker Jack prize. She slid it onto her ring finger. “Hey, it fits.”

“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” said a kid who was passing by and looked like he’d been waiting for her to put the ring on so that he could say that.

Melinda gave him a look. He left, laughing obnoxiously.

Andrew hopped off the bleachers and held out his hand. “May I have this dance?”

“Oh, I suppose.”

 

_1989_

Vegas sounded like a great idea when they were deciding how they wanted to celebrate graduating university, but they’d underestimated how badly they needed the break. They spent one night there and woke up with a brutal hangover. They had planned to wait until the end of the week to do that.

Melinda blinked at the frame that was propped on the bedside table.

“What’s wrong?” Andrew asked, muffled due to his head being buried in her neck.

“This says we’re married.”

Andrew tensed. “What says we’re married?”

“This… oh, wait. Hang on.” She picked up the frame to look at it properly. “This is fake. Never mind.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s a prop from the gift shop. See? It’s still got the price tag on it.”

Andrew draped his arm over his eyes. “Oh, thank God. We’re both still dressed, right?”

“Yep.”

“So all we did was pretend marry each other?”

“I think we might have made out a little, but other than that… Ugh. I need tea. I’m getting room service.”

 

_2000_

“So,” said Andrew on the drive back to work. “When and how do we tell people?”

“I don’t know. There’s going to be a lot of hurt feeling when people find out there wasn’t a wedding.”

“We can throw them a party later. Or we can pretend to be engaged for a few months and get married again.”

“We get married _a lot._ ”

They were still buzzing with excitement and it showed on their faces.

“We need to keep a straight face when we get to work,” Melinda said. “We should tell our parents before we tell anyone else. “

“When should we tell our parents?”

“Uh… Tonight. I kind of like being secretly married to you.”

Andrew laughed. “Then we should get lunch. Since, you know, we’re on our lunch break. I want to be able to tell people that we had lunch and not be lying to them.”

 

_2015_

They dawdled on their way back to the hotel, Andrew’s arm around Melinda’s shoulders and her arm around his waist. It was their last night in Hawaii. Who knew when they’d get another vacation?

“Do you want to get married again?” Andrew asked.

“What, right now?”

“Sure.”

Melinda laughed. “Yeah, okay.”

“Really?”

“Sure. It would be kind of weird for us to disappear and not come back married.”

“Right? It’s tradition.”

They were married again when they went to bed that night. It wasn’t a guarantee that things would work out but that’s not why they did it. It just seemed like the thing to do. Eloping felt right the last time and it felt right now. That didn’t change when they woke up.


End file.
